Works of Justice 108 - George T. Wilkerson on Crimson Letters: Voices from Death Row

PEN America

For authors whose books were slated to publish during a pandemic, like Tessie Castillo’s, that usual release process has been turned on its head. Castillo is a journalist and the author of Crimson Letters: Voices from Death Row, published by Black Rose on March 12, 2020, and co-authored by Michael J. Braxton, Lyle May, Terry Robinson and George Wilkerson; four men on death row in North Carolina. Castillo met her co-authors while conducting a journaling class. The project is a meditation on her unlikely friendship with the men—after all, classes conducted by outsiders on death row are indeed rare—and features thirty essays in the men’s own words about their experiences. We bid our outgoing Prison and Justice Intern Kate Cammell farewell with her final Works of Justice interview: a powerful conversation with Crimson Letters editor George Wilkerson about the power of storytelling and how he finds hope in his daily circumstance. Wilkerson is a PEN America Award winner for his 2018 Memoir “Limp Gray Fur.” His writing has been published in The Marshall Project, Compassion and The Upper Room. Intro by Mark Gallagher